All About Pocket Knives

This is an event recorded by my late friend, Victor Fleming, about an encounter by his brother, which worked for the South Carolina Highway Department in the road maintenance department.

Believe It Or Not!

by Victor Fleming

Once upon a time- and that, my friend, is about as close to the actual date as memory will allow. However, an educated guess would be in the early to mid seventies. Knife trading, though rapidly gaining <5 popularity, was still mostly an old man's pastime. Older knives were still in good supply, and Case stags were much sought after as toters. Even then, as now, they commanded premium prices compared to other knives. Now here's where a close relative, a man who knows a bargain when he sees one, my brother Leo, enters the picture. While working the roads this particular day, he stopped at a crossroads store for refreshments. Noticing an old glass showcase, Leo asked the obvious question, 'Got any pocket knives in there?’ ‘Only these, and the owner brought out a box of Case stags. ‘Had them for a while, must be overpriced.‘ 'How much?', my brother then asked. 'You mean for all of them, or just one?‘ ‘I don't know, how much for the box? “Now, I won't pretend to remember the exact price quoted, I do know it was somewhat less than ten dollars per knife, quite a bargain even then. 'And if you buy them all, the owner re— plied, and brought out two more boxes, 'l'll do a little better! ‘ Carefully examining the knives while doing a little mental arithmetic, my brother decided to buy. 'l'll just take them all, but I'll have to run home for the money.‘ The store owner took what cash Leo had, and slipped the knives back under the counter. Needless to say, a State Highway Department truck lost no time on the round trip. Our little story doesn't end here, however, although as it turned out, it should. While proudly displaying his new stags for me, the name of this little country store was casually mentioned. "Did you leave anything? ', I inquired. 'I don't think so, but you can check it out.’ You know what happened next. As I entered the store, hoping to find something that might have been overlooked, I noticed a slightly puzzled look in the owners gaze, as if he thought he recognized me. Determined to see it through, however, I had to ask, ‘Got any knives in that old showcase?" ‘You‘re a little late, son. ‘Some old slick cleaned me out just last week!’ Then staring at me more intently, he announced to all present, ‘Come to think of it, he looked a lot like you!’ As I beat a hasty re- treat, I couldn‘t help but overhear his remark to another customer, "The Case salesman said he would have given me twice what I sold them for.‘ Me too!

Obviously these kinds of things happen - just never to me! Reminds me of the stories I’ve heard about someone finding that old car - a “barn find” - that had been untouched for years. And, of course, bought for a small fraction of its actual worth. (Sigh!) Only in my dreams!!

I for one am a believer, having experienced that time myself. In the late '60s and early '70s I traveled the roads of East and South Texas many a weekend looking for just such opportunities, and found a few of them.

Small towns abounded with independently owned retail hardware, sporting goods and other businesses that carried pocket cutlery. Some had really large cutlery displays. Folks were mostly friendly and trusting, after a little visiting while browsing, in a bit I was often behind the counter cutlery display looking through the inventory for treasures. Those places typically didn't rotate their stock in any orderly fashion, just sold the customer wherever knife struck their fancy. So it was not at all uncommon to find pocket knives several years old, still in the wrapper and for sale at the price marked when they were put into stock. It was a knife collector dream. The only drawback was I was poor! I bought what I could, kept what I could afford and sold the rest to other collectors of my acquaintance.

But I wasn't the only one hunting - I've heard that "you should have been here two weeks ago" before. And when the stag embargo dried up the supply of Case stags, soon thereafter the whole thing dried up and retailers were hard pressed to keep any stock. Then along came Walmart expansion into those small towns. Followed by Lowes, Home Depot etc. You know "the rest of the story".

But it as fun those few years while it lasted.

Ken

Stranger things have happened, look at our current president. Now that's strange!

I know those things happen.
An old knife trading buddy recently bought a 1940s Case floor standing display full of brand new old stock knives. about 35-40 of them. They had been sitting in a warehouse since the sporting goods closed many uyears ago. he sold 1/2 of them in 2 shows.

Great stories guys, thanks for sharing!

There is a current story about a couple that bought one hundred shipping containers from a military surplus company and when they opened one of them found one dozen fully automatic M-16 rifles.

They called the authorities.